A cable news channel in Raleigh, North Carolina shut down a Web application designed to allow local schools and businesses to report weather-related closures last week, after a handful of puckish university students discovered they could use it to add textual graffiti to the station's newscast. Before the system was pulled, viewers tuning into Time Warner Cable's News 14 Carolina for updates on last week's record-breaking snow storm could read in the text ticker on the lower third of the screen that a company called "h4x0r3d Computer Services Inc." was among the business that would be shuttered the next morning because of the storm.

According to screen shots saved by observers, other messages sprinkled among the genuine closings that rotated through the ticker included "1337 5p34k Linguistic Services", "All Your Base Are Belong To Us", and a note that "Tutone Inc." would be closed, and employees should call "Jenny at 867-5309" for more details.